Epicyclic gears have been used in winches before--see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,682,442 and GB-A-2253199 and GB-A-1353607.
GB-A-2253199 is concerned with the provision of multiple gear trains capable of giving extremely high reductions, provided in a detachable gearbox mounted at the head of the winch.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,682,442 provides an epicyclic gear in which the axes of rotation of planet gears are borne on a rotatable carrier which intervenes between the central drive shaft and the winch drum which is to be driven. Oppositely-directed sprag clutches between the drive shaft and the carrier enable either 1:1 direct drive to be transmitted through the locked-up planetary gearing (the carrier being effectively locked stationary by the sprag clutches in one direction of rotation of the shaft) or with a moderate reduction, 1:4 being mentioned, through mutual relative rotation of all of the shaft, the carrier and the drum.
GB-A-1353607 has a final output epicyclic of which the planetary gear is borne in part of the drum as its carrier. Reversible drive is applied via an input epicyclic either to the output epicyclic in one direction of drive or directly to the drum in the other direction with the planetary gear of the final drive being ineffective.